The Holidays can be sad: An explanation of HSAD

Okay there I said it, the Holidays can be sad. However, I know I am not the only person who has felt this way at some time. From the mom icing 70 cookies for her kid’s youth group to the college student trying to recoup from a semester at college, we all have suffered from HSAD, Holiday Seasonal Affective Disorder, in some way. If it’s not the to-do list, it’s feeling rushed around this time of year with the struggle of wrapping up work, Christmas parties, getting gifts together, where crazy traffic comes out of nowhere and tracking packages. No matter how happy you are HSAD can happen to you.

HSAD begins when Christmas trees are placed in stores before kids knock on doors to say “trick or treat” to the neighbors, but HSAD escalates closer to the 25th of December. As I get older, I look back a reminisce how I won’t get to relive my childhood where I was blessed to receive everything from the Barbie Dream House and American Girl Dolls complete with the outfits. Later, I realize that I know some kids during my childhood didn’t have that blessing in their childhood even the comfort of a house with appropriate heating. At this time of year, we need to focus on we are blessed, but sometimes thinking about our blessings make us think of places and times of our lives that we can’t go back to. Even in 2016, sadly there are tons of children and adults who don’t have the simple blessings that I have and we just need to take it for granted. These blessings are a reminder that trying to find gifts that match everyone’s personality and a budget is not the important things this time of year.

It’s not the material goods around this time of year, that is getting to me it’s the ones I love. While planning I often think of the smell of Palmolive dishwater, then the feeling of a dish rag that has a pattern from the 70s and the texture of pots and pans because I usually get the job as a dryer because my grandpa immediately washes the dishes after everyone eats Christmas dinner. I don’t know if I cognitively think of this because my grandparent’s house played a major role in Christmases as a child.

There’s song by the band Dawes called “A Little Bit of Everything” that really reminds me of times during the holiday season. However, there have been two times when a family member has said the words “A little bit of everything.” I wanted to cry when they said those words. If you have heard that song, I feel as though anyone could make their own verse for that song.

You know that your childhood is gone. It’s the mystery of life when you were young and you made a circle over everything on a page in the JC Penney Christmas Catalog. It’s also how a snow day isn’t as magical because you didn’t think of it making your clothes and hair wet after being out in the cold. There’s the family I have loved, lost and I want to hold onto more. Especially when you have family members who are only in town for 48 hours and you have to try to see everyone in that time frame. There’s no way a marathon of The OC can be fit in like my sister and I did around Christmas a decade before.

It’s quite obvious that this is a universal suffering, but hey it will be okay. No matter who we are we just need to pause and enjoy moments. We need to try to forget the rush that occurs. With me, I have to remind myself to play the Michael Buble and My Morning Jacket Christmas albums on repeat to feel more in the spirit. Living in the moment makes it more ideal. However, HSAD should never conquer the joys of the world that are occurring.